Brad talks marriage, George just talks

Oscar polls close on February 21. A lot can happen between now and then. And while it’s been the thing this week to bitch and moan and complain about the Oscars and the process and the snubs and the old fartness of the institution, complaining about it with such passion, to the point where sometimes it actually feels personal, only reinforces the Oscars’ importance. Sasha Stone’s reaction piece on Tuesday sounded angst-ridden, almost tearful. Obviously then, it matters. Oscar MATTERS.

Rag on the Academy all you want. And yet the Academy still manages to elicit the most intense emotions, arguments, and debates. About MOVIES. As long as people work in the movies, and that includes the actors who act in them, the producers who produce them, the directors, the writers, and also the critics who review them, they will care about the Oscar. And if they still care about the Oscar, the Oscar will still be relevant, no matter how often, year after year, these tempestuous critics call for the demise of the Academy. Who do you think is holding up the Academy? When Brad Pitt and George Clooney are running around town, bending over for an Oscar at every opportunity, who do you think is holding up the Academy???

Please.

Earlier this month, it was Clooney slapping his face on the cover of any magazine that would have him, dragging his new girl onto every carpet. Now it’s Brad Pitt’s turn. To make sure the industry and the voters know that, like his friend George, he too is an actor AND a producer - for Moneyball and Tree of Life - and more importantly, a CHAMPION of film, the kind of man who wants to make interesting, relevant movies, who will stop at nothing to see them to the screen, the way he did with Moneyball, throwing his immense weight behind the project, even when it was almost dead, so that it could eventually see a triumphant, box-office winning release.

How many times have you heard this story now? He has been telling it for months. Or they’ve been telling it for him for months. And in the next month it needs to fully absorb, if Pitt and Moneyball are to have any chance (Sony hopes) of winning at all. Which is why...

Well...

It never hurts to complement a “serious” message, about Brad’s commitment to great filmmaking, with a juicy gossipy one about his desire to marry his lady.

Did the smell of his Campaign just punch you in the face? Totally. TOTALLY. And this is the excerpt, the BIG QUOTE, that everyone has been fixating on - dangling marriage in exchange for a few Oscar votes, Brad comes close, the closest he’s ever come, to guaranteeing it: “We’d actually like to (get married),” he says of his seven-year partner, Jolie, “and it seems to mean more and more to our kids. We made this declaration some time ago that we weren’t going to do it till everyone can. But I don’t think we’ll be able to hold out. It means so much to my kids, and they ask a lot. And it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment.” Has he asked Jolie to marry him? “I’m not going to go any further,” says Pitt. “But to be in love with someone and be raising a family with someone and want to make that commitment and not be able to is ludicrous, just ludicrous.”

Is it obvious?

Of course it’s obvious.

Do I love it?

Of course I love it.

Brad Pitt is going for broke in a 5 page interview with The Hollywood Reporter, a publication now run by the former editor in chief of Us Weekly, blatantly selling his personal life, in the kind of move normally reserved for the Albas and the Biels of the world, because he wants that trophy SO badly. So badly he’s even down with cameras rolling during the photo shoot.

But he looks really, really good, non?

The full article is an interesting read. There’s nothing super new to be learned, but this is a Brad that is certainly much more accessible - conveniently - than we’ve seen in a while. Also, I have to give him some love on the way he concluded that comment about marriage, bringing it back to an issue of equality: “But to be in love with someone and be raising a family with someone and want to make that commitment and not be able to is ludicrous, just ludicrous.”

It IS ludicrous.

And why THE F-CK is this still an issue???

So there’s Brad, appealing to the gay demographic in addition to the MiniVan Majority, while publicly conceding that “George should win everything”, and secretly hoping for an Oscar day upset. Question is: Is it enough? Best Actor, right now, is George Clooney’s to lose. And the way George Clooney is behaving, he doesn’t think he has it locked up either.

Have you seen the Newsweek Oscar roundtable? Most of you emailing me about the interview and the clips have focused on the chemistry between Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender. Not interested, sorry. What I noticed most was George Clooney.

AND HOW MUCH HE TALKED.

He talks when it’s about him, when it’s not about him, when someone else is talking, when no when else is talking...

George is TRYING. Like, VISIBLY trying. I’ll attach the 10 videos below. Come back on your lunch hour if you have time and watch him insert himself into every topic of discussion. The others, you’ll note, especially Tilda Swinton (who is the best, BEST part of it all), manage to stay quiet often and JUST LISTEN to their peers much of the time. George?

You don’t go a minute without hearing from George. Here are his key messages:

1.I love movies. I make movies. Good movies. That’s all I care about.2.I will never forget where I came from.3.Art is important.4.I respect the Academy.

He’s working so hard, it’s almost...endearing.

But celebrities, they LOVE to gossip too, don’t they? See how they light up when they’re recalling the Adrien Brody story?

Click here to read Brad Pitt’s full interview with The Hollywood Reporter.